Ars System Guide: HTPC edition

The Ars Technica System Guide returns with a focus on home theater PCs. We've …

All-in-one system

The all-in-one HTPC does everything with a case that blends into your living room, be it a single box or one of many sitting on your home theater rack. It offers reasonable storage capacity and fairly decent performance and is easy to upgrade in several directions, such as adding a discrete high-performance video card for gaming or a quad-core CPU for heavy-duty encoding.

We do leave one important decision up to the builder, despite our constant harping about 1080p capability: Blu-ray. A BD-ROM drive is reasonably affordable, but most lack any writing ability whatsoever, even to CD-RW. Going to a Blu-ray writer is considerably more expensive, and we're not sure if it should be a mandatory component quite yet. Weigh the cost and benefits yourself, then make the call.

Motherboard

Gigabyte GA-MA78GM-S2H

The motherboard in a HTPC actually has a few more demands on it than the typical Ars Budget Box or Hot Rod.

To save money and reduce power consumption, it should include onboard video instead of forcing the builder to use a discrete graphics card. The most recent onboard video chipsets all include HD decoding assistance: AMD 780G with the integrated Radeon HD 3200 graphics core includes AMD's UVD, Intel G35 with the integrated X3500 includes Intel Clear Video, and NVIDIA's Geforce 8200 with NVIDIA PureVideo. These chipsets and their HD decode assistance help reduce processor requirements in operating systems where driver support exists for it, which today is mostly limited to versions of Microsoft Windows. This makes it somewhat less useful for the HTPC System Guide than we'd like.

The motherboard should include enough expansion slots to fit in a pair of HD tuner cards and maybe a soundcard, if the builder desires. Being able to fit a discrete graphics card generally isn't a concern unless you want to use your HTPC for gaming. With the emergence of PCI-e tuners, we're looking for at least two PCI-e slots, maybe three for optimum flexibility—or you can use PCI tuner cards and not worry about PCI-e as much. Most microATX boards have at least one PCI-e x16 and one PCI-e x1, so the choice boils down to having a second PCI-e x1 slot or a second PCI slot.

Finally, the motherboard needs to include enough connectivity. Three SATA ports should be enough to drive a pair of hard drives and an optical drive, although ambitious builders may want more SATA ports. Onboard Firewire is also essential for cable box users whose boxes support Firewire out. 7.1 channel sound is also useful, although not as critical as the HDMI 1.3 or DVI w/HDCP out that the latest motherboards are now including.

Intel builders will want to look at the Asus P5E-VM HDMI and its competition, or somewhat cheaper Intel G33-based boards if you can find one that meets your specific needs. HTPC builders going far beyond the minimum specifications needed for 1080p playback and into quad-core territory will definitely want to go Intel, as Anandtech has found that most current AMD 780G-based boards cannot handle 125W TDP AMD processors such as the Phenom 9750 and 9850.

On the AMD side, 780G-chipset based boards which fill all of our requirements are excellent candidates for the all-in-one HTPC. Asus' M3A78-EMH is one of the few alternatives, along with the Gigabyte we've chosen. The Gigabyte GA-MA78GM-S2H has 4 DDR2 sockets, 5 internal SATA, 1 PATA, 1 eSATA, Firewire, a total of 12 USB 2.0 ports, DVI and HDMI 1.3 outputs, and DTS Connect support onboard. One PCI-e x16 and one PCI-e x1 slot for the tuner cards, plus two PCI slots round out the package.

Processor

AMD Athlon X2 5200+ Retail

Your choice of operating system will dictate the processor you go with here—specifically if your OS of choice supports your video chipset's onboard HD video acceleration, be that AMD's UVD, NVIDIA's PureVideo, or Intel's Clear Video. At this time, chipset onboard HD acceleration seems to be limited to Windows; Linux drivers are in their infancy at best at the moment.

This breaks the CPU needs of the all-in-one HTPC box into two options: the hardware-assisted route, where a dual-core CPU as slow as 1.5GHz would do the trick per SilentPCReview, or the software-only route that a Linux-based front end is going to have to take, which needs something along the lines of an Athlon 64 X2 5200+. AMD's energy-efficient Athlon X2 4450e or 4850e would be a better choice for Windows users whose MCE of choice can use HD acceleration. For unassisted playback, the 4450e and 4850e's respective 2.3GHz and 2.5GHz clockspeeds might prove a bit weak, so we stick with a faster processor.

Intel builders have similar choices: the hardware assisted route, where a dual-core CPU as slow as 1.2GHz would do the trick, or the software-only route where a Core 2 Duo E8200 or older is about the recommended minimum. The Pentium Dual-Core E2200 is about as slow as we would go on the low-end as the price/performance doesn't make too much sense with anything older and hotter-running. On the faster side, the Core 2 Duo E8400 or Core 2 Quad Q9300 offer much more flexibility, particularly if heavy-duty media encoding is expected to be a regular task for your HTPC setup.

Remember, if you plan to run Windows (or if Linux support for UVD/PureVideo/Clear Video has evolved enough by the time you build your HTPC) with its support for GPU-based hardware acceleration, you can get away with a considerably slower dual-core part. Just make sure you're running a fairly modern dual-core part; older, slower CPUs are often outclassed by their more modern brethren in all aspects, particularly power consumption, which is very important in keeping your HTPC low-noise and living-room friendly.

The AMD Athlon X2 5200+ is one of AMD's cooler-running processors. At 2.7GHz, 2x512KB cache, and a thermal design power (TDP) of just 65W, it's not quite as good as the current Intel chips, but it's competitive, and the ability to pair it with AMD's excellent 780G chipset convinces us to make it the processor of choice. We go with the retail box for the longer warranty.

Heatsink

Scythe Ninja Mini

The retail heatsink is perfectly adequate, but for lower noise, the Scythe Ninja Mini or some of the other aftermarket heatsinks available do a better job. If your chassis has appropriately placed fans already, it may be possible for you to run your Ninja Mini without the included fan, further lowering noise.

Memory:

2GB DDR2-800

Memory is dirt cheap, and to run Vista comfortably, 2GB is nice to have. A lighter-weight OS and MCE front-end such as Mythbuntu can get by with 1GB or even 512MB, but didn't we mention just how cheap memory is?

We stick with DDR2 that requires the JEDEC-standard 1.8v for optimal compatibility and lowest power dissipation.

Video

None—onboard

The start of 2008 brought one very nice thing to the table for motherboards with integrated graphics: the capable Intel G35 chipset with the GMA X3500 graphics core, and the even more impressive AMD 780G chipset with the Radeon HD 3200 graphics core. Both offer sufficient on-board power to handle most of the HD processing, enabling slower, less-power-hungry CPUs to handle 1080p content with assistance from the graphics core.

AMD's 780G does a better job of this than Intel's G35, giving AMD the nod here. NVIDIA's Geforce 8200 chipset has yet to arrive in significant numbers, but it may be worth considering as well. The difference matters less if your HTPC OS of choice doesn't support the integrated graphics' decoding support, which is mostly limited to flavors of Windows at the moment. Whenever the Linux support catches up for the rest of the decoding hardware built into the chipsets, you may be able to drop to a slower CPU.

The 780G has one other advantage over the G35: better 3D performance. It's still anemic compared to even a $100 discrete solution, but it's surprisingly competent otherwise. Occasional gamers may be surprised how good it is. Hardcore gamers won't be, but a hardcore gamer is probably already looking at more suitable gaming cards such as the AMD Radeon HD 3870, nVidia Geforce 9600GT, Geforce 8800GT 512MB, and Geforce 8800GTS 512MB.

Cost: n/a

TV tuner

Two Hauppauge WinTV-HVR-1800 HD tuners

The key sticklers appear to be compatibility. Check sites like LinuxTV.org and its ilk for Linux compatibility, which is essential for many MCE front ends. If you're Windows-centric, then quite a few more cards should work for you.

We go with two Hauppauge WinTV-HVR-1800 tuners, which take advantage of the PCI-e x1 slots on our motherboard and are widely supported in multiple OSes. If you're hooked into cable, don't forget to check if your cable box supports (and if your cable company enables it) FireWire out; that may let you plug the cable box directly into your system via FireWire, allowing you to dispense with a separate tuner card.

Alternative tuners include the Hauppauge Nova-T-500 for DAB signals outside the USA. For in the USA, the SiliconDust HD Homerun is very popular, as is the Dvico FusionHDTV 5 Gold, AverMedia AverTV HD A180, and the PCI version of the Hauppauge WinTV-HVR-1800, the WinTV-HVR-1600.

Sound:

None—onboard

7.1 sound onboard is fine for a HTPC. If you need more, cards such as the Bluegears b-Inspirer, Auzentech X-plosion 7.1, and the newly released Asus Xonar DX are worth looking at. Gaming enthusiasts may want to look at Creative's venerable X-fi XtremeGamer.

Cost: n/a

Communications

Network card—none (onboard)

The average HTPC doesn't move, so the standard onboard gigabit Ethernet is just fine. If you need wireless, a cheap 802.11g or more capable 802.11n card is easy to set up. Keep in mind the bandwidth needed to stream HD content, especially 1080p flavors, requires a solid wireless signal if you are going that route.

Cost: n/a

Hard drive

Two Western Digital GreenPower 1TB (WD10EACS)

Boot and storage drives are both the same size here. We could go for a smaller boot drive, but with physical space at a premium inside the typical HTPC chassis and harddisks being cheap, we elect to splurge, because the additional space is likely to be very useful somewhere down the line.

Somewhat less extravagant would be the Western Digital WD6400AAKS, a very fast 640GB two-platter drive courtesy of its use of some the highest-density platters available today. Prices on 750GB and 1TB drives have also plummeted, with units such as the Seagate Barracuda 7200.11 1TB and Samsung F1 1TB being very popular.

Western Digital's GreenPower 1TB drive has a 5400rpm spindle speed, 16MB cache, 8.9ms seek time, three-year warranty, and relatively low power and noise for a desktop 3.5" drive, making it ideal for HTPC use. The slower 5400rpm spindle speed hurts performance in access time-dependent areas, but most HTPCs never see very stressful use, and the WD10EACS is plenty fast to start with, so this should not be an issue.

Optical drive

Samsung SH-S203N

While we would like to go Blu-ray with a drive such as the LG GGW-H20L, it's still pricey enough that we only make it an option in the HTPC all-in-one. A BD-ROM drive such as the Lite-On DH-4O1S-11 is more affordable, but then we lose the ability to write to any form of optical media. We go with the pedestrian DVD-RW and leave it up to individual builders if they want to go Blu-ray or not, because a Blu-ray writer is still a significant chunk of money in this price range. With the rapid fall of Blu-ray drive prices, we do expect this to change in the next update.

Samsung's SH-S203N supports DVD reads and writes up to 20x, CD reads up to 48x, has a 2MB cache as well as a SATA interface. Its competition, such as the Pioneer DVR-215, is also excellent. If you don't need or want LightScribe, the Samsung SH-S203B is usually a buck or two cheaper, but is otherwise identical.

Case

Antec Veris Fusion

We looked at the Silverstone LC17, Silverstone GD02, Thermaltake Bach, Ahanix DVINE 6, Lian-Li PC-V800B, and quite a few others before we decided on the Antec Veris Fusion. We checked out the lower end too, such as the In-win BT566T before making our decision.

While far from perfect, the Antec Fusion offers two 3.5" bays for hard drive, two 5.25" exposed, a VFD, IR receiver, and potential for very low noise cooling via its side-mounted 120mm fans. The 120mm fans are very well positioned to pull air off of the CPU heatsink, which is something low-noise builders will want to take advantage of. The factory Antec Tri-cool 120mm fans are good enough for this use as well, which minimizes additional costs. The standard-size ATX power supply also helps, and the included 430W unit makes it a very good value compared to higher-priced offerings from Silverstone, Ahanix, Lian-Li, and others.

430W is serious overkill for this system, the Sparkle SPI250EP 250W is probably more appropriate, but the fact that Antec's included 430W unit is already pretty low noise and fairly efficient means we stick with the included PSU. If you're using a chassis other than the Fusion that does not include a power supply, then we would strongly consider the Sparkle SPI250EP or Seasonic S12II 330W.

Builders may wish to look at chassis other than the Antec Fusion, particularly very-low-noise builders and those seeking to put more than two hard drives into their all-in-one HTPC. Budget builders may also want to look at something cheaper, but once you factor in the price of a power supply, the Antec Fusion is a pretty good deal.

Swapping out the stock fans in the Fusion to the Scythe S-flex SFF21D fans will help bring the noise down from the relatively low stock levels into very-low-noise territory, as would a power supply swap to the Enermax Modu82+ 425W. Doing both of these upgrades, though, means you're not using a lot of stock parts in the Fusion, and hence makes the Fusion somewhat less attractive on the value front. Individual builders should evaluate their needs here, particularly since the living room is not a super quiet place, which makes swapping out to the lowest-noise components unnecessary for most HTPCs.

Input devices

Gyration GO 2.4 Optical Air Mouse and Compact-size Keyboard

If you need serious range, because your living room is 100 feet long or you just have a lot of RF interference, the Adesso Wireless SlimTouch Mini is reported to have a 100 foot/30meter range.

In the more pedestrian range, the Gyration GO 2.4 lineup is pretty decent, as is the Logitech Cordless Desktop S510. Both also work fine in Linux. The Logitech MX5000 is also excellent, but not all features work in Linux.

Microsoft Remote Control

As far as media center remotes go, the Microsoft Remote is actually quite good, and is liked by most. The Snapstream Firefly, Soundgraph Imon, and quite a few others are pretty good too. If you need a little more integration, the Logitech Harmony 550 and its brethen are very useful as well.